The first council considered the new building of the RSL book depository (Mosproekt-5, S. B. Tkachenko), the former Library of them. Lenin, which is planned to be built on the site of the Vozdvizhenka monastery, whose cathedral, a remarkable monument of late "Naryshkin" architecture, was demolished in the 1930s (Vozdvizhenka, 7/6). This place is now an eternal fence with a billboard and an underground passage. On the contrary, across the street - the ghost of Voentorg, the heartache of all cultural Moscow. Under the ground, at the site of the proposed construction, there are as many as 3 metro tunnels, which interfere with underground construction. But, as was announced at the council, it is planned to open a new exit from Borovitskaya in the building of the book depository.
By the way, the idea to build a book depository has existed since Soviet times, but it came to life about one and a half to two years ago - in August 2007, about the same project ("Mosproekt-5", Sergei Tkachenko) was shown by the OERG, which is no longer going to. Anyway, the layout shown on Friday is definitely the same. True, in its uppermost volume, three shallow grooves were cut through, which in 2007 were only slightly outlined. Which is probably done to lighten the silhouette. The OERG sent the draft not finalized a year and a half ago. Then the following objections were raised: the new building, limited in height by 32 meters, is too well visible from everywhere; at this place it is necessary to carry out archaeological excavations (which is logical); it is necessary to coordinate the project with Metrogiprotrans (also logical); and show the Method Council at the Ministry of Culture. But the Metodsovet has not gathered since about that time. So what was shown or not, remains unknown. Unfortunately, nothing is known about the excavations either, but this is already sad. I wish there were excavations. Judging by the exit from the metro formed in the project, it was apparently agreed with Metrogiprotrans. The council also said that the new book depository will also be connected underground and with the main building of the library.
The discussion of the project focused on landscape-visual analysis, proving the invisibility of the building and on the architectural style. As Alexander Kuzmin assured, from the main panoramic vantage point - the bridge opposite Pashkov's house, the new building will not be visible (which is probably true - from this point of view it should be obscured by the old Leninki book depository, a large gray plate on Starovagankovsky Lane).
The architectural solution presented at the pre-project level offered 2 options - a modernist truncated pyramid or a building with thin pylons, designed in the aesthetics of the V. Schuko / V. Gelfreikh library. Yuri Luzhkov, agreeing on the whole with the proposal, became interested in the architectural image and urged "to continue the line of architectural solutions of the 1930s, which would have folded this entire micro-district into a single ensemble." Thus, the project "passed", and it seems, in the very version that the experts saw in 2007 (well, or very, very similar).
Following the principle of moving away from the center, the second in a row discussed the development of the urban planning plan of Krasnopresnensky District (Mosproekt-2, MG Leonov), the only one of the 10 districts of the Central Administrative District, the issue of which remained unclear due to the Big City included in it. According to Alexander Kuzmin, most of the district has been formed, and no invasions are planned here, only overhaul, restoration, land surveying, and landscaping. Mainly the areas adjacent to the railroad, production sites and 5-storey buildings are being transformed. Rescheduling as a result makes it possible to build an additional 300 thousand square meters here. m. of housing. The main snag is in the area of transport, which does not withstand the amount of office space laid down in the project, where only City has 3 million sq. M. Kuzmin sees a way out in re-profiling offices, for example, into hotels. The process has already begun, they decided not to build an administrative building near the White House, leaving and modernizing the existing stadium. To this, Yuri Luzhkov directly and irrevocably stated that "we will not build office space on the territory of Presnya at all", which, in fact, settled the question. The only thing that the mayor was dissatisfied with was the lack of embankments in the area - this, according to Yuri Luzhkov, must be taken care of, and funds should not be spared.
However, there is one more concern - the fate of the unique residential quarters of the 1920s-1930s, monuments of constructivism. It is not known if they got into the stabilization zone or if they will be demolished. Note that some of them have now been brought to such a state that, according to the prefecture, they cannot be restored. Alexander Kuzmin, meanwhile, did not dispel doubts, answering the question somehow vaguely - part of the housing estates is subject to overhaul. What will happen to the rest remains unclear.
The most discussed at the council was the project of a high-rise complex on Presnensky Val, above the Ulitsa 1905 Goda metro station. As it turned out, they have been arguing around this place for many years, back in Gorbachev's times it was planned to build a Russian-English house, then a business center, the last option that was submitted to the current council was a hotel with an apart-hotel. The project of workshop No. 5 "Mosproekt-2" is three teardrop-shaped in the plan of the tower 17-24 floors, growing out of a stylobate of rounded outlines. In comparison with the previous options, they are noticeably lower, approaching the surrounding residential development. According to Alexander Kuzmin, the area around the metro still gravitates towards the old city, and with the exception of the future Arab Center, where the number of storeys rises, emphasizing the Third Ring passing nearby, in other places it is more restrained.
The very possibility of building something large in this area did not raise doubts among the members of the council, but as to what it should be, no agreement was reached. According to Yuri Platonov, the spatial composition of the current complex is hopelessly inferior to the “incredibly beautiful silhouette” of the Krasnopresnensk Stalinist skyscraper: “Apart from horizontal and sloping roofs, we do not know a single technique, endlessly replicating City”. Platonov urged to move away from faceless modernism in favor of a more Moscow, tectonic composition. Alexander Kudryavtsev is also sure that the design is going somewhere in the wrong direction. Constant dissatisfaction with projects, in his opinion, is due to the fact that “buildings are constantly displayed through the height. We go across the prevailing sensation of this space, which is rather a funnel, and they want to turn it inside out. Alexander Kudryavtsev suggested changing the program, making it architecturally more complex. Andrey Bokov criticized the project for its “inaccessibility” in the sense of the lack of open public space, which is appropriate somewhere on the Moscow Ring Road, but not in the city center. Yuri Gnedovsky, for his part, suggested finding the best solution through a competition.
The mayor agreed that something serious had to be done for this place. At the same time, he noted that the accepted volumes are possible, as well as the hotel in them. With regard to architecture, Yuri Luzhkov spoke out against another skyscraper, "like in Manhattan," and supported the idea of the competition. The mayor is confident that the public space below is useful for the city and does not interfere with the hotel's operation, pointing out the experience of a successful solution for the first floor of the reconstructed hotel "Moscow".
The next discussed was the development project of the Izmailovo hotel complex (PF "Grado", VR Lutz), built for the 1980 Olympics, and therefore outdated in terms of infrastructure. The complex consists of 4 buildings, and the owner would like to get another one for an apart-hotel. But since the new building will be closer to the historical zone, the Church of the Intercession and the walls of the 17th century, which were once part of the ensemble of the palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the building was "laid on its side", having received an 11-storey plate. The sports and recreational, social and business center and other innovations designed to modernize the Soviet infrastructure were decided to be removed to the stylobate part, reconstructing it at the existing buildings.
The mayor did not object and approved the project, but with the amendment that additional parking will be located on the nearby South Alley. Viktor Logvinov, however, did not see in the project architectural solutions that qualitatively change the dull environment in favor of landscaping, for example, and suggested thinking about it.
The most interesting from the architectural point of view was the project of the media center of the NTV television company. It is supposed to be erected on an empty site, next to the Ostankino television center, between Argunovskaya and Novomoskovskaya streets. Despite the “pre-project proposal for placement” indicated in the agenda, the project looks quite complete. German bureau Atelier Achatz Architects came up with something curious. In terms of the media center, it is a rectangle, but with deformed, elongated corners, like a stretched blanket. The side facing Novomoskovskaya Street, where the entrance is located, is cut off by a wavy line; a layered volume is inserted into it from above - the “visor” of the entrance, which is balanced by the removal of a sharp corner “console” on the left.
On the model, the volume looks like a crystal or a carved block of ice with sharp non-vertical edges. The volume itself splits into two, as if embedded in each other and contrasting in their texture and density. Its front side is glass, all entwined with a bizarre "cobweb", and the "backdrops" where the studios are located are made of an opaque material resembling wood. The building has a glass roof with a fancy "lantern". The project as a whole is beautiful, very European, logically picking up the theme of the TV center, modernizing it.
The main issue here was the height of the building due to the perception of the nearby Ostankino estate. But since, as Alexander Kuzmin noted, the current version of the media center corresponds to the parameters of the surrounding buildings, he did not raise any objections, except for the triumphant exclamations of the NTV delegation.
The only failure befell the project of the multifunctional complex "Region" on Kutuzovsky Prospect (LLC "NATAL", SB Tkachenko). This complex was designed within the framework of the town-planning concept for the development of the entire Kutuzovsky Prospekt and Mozhaisk highway, from the triumphal arch to the Moscow Ring Road itself, which had already been submitted to the council, which won the competition. However, there were some changes in it: two previously planned high-rise buildings were excluded in favor of the development of a natural area. Alexander Kuzmin demonstrated this on a model by pulling out two houses - the so-called Fisherman's House and a hotel at the place of a gas station.
As a result, only the "Region" building next to the "Slavyansky Boulevard" metro station, presented by the authors in the form of a triangular glass ingot with a sharp edge facing Kutuzovsky Prospekt, remained of the high-rises conceived in the town-planning concept. Mikhail Posokhin criticized it sharply, pointing out the strangeness of the tower, standing alone in the middle of a five-story building. According to Mikhail Posokhin, there are two options for the development of this territory, either to demolish all 5-storey buildings and create a new environment, or to intelligently shape the silhouette of the building, and not one, but several. And if we go along the second path, then we need, in his words, an urban planning concept that could form the composition of the entrance. This remark was joined by Yuri Grigoriev and Yuri Platonov, who was surprised why, from the work of the Moskomarkhitektura on building the entire beam, today they again came to fragmentary design.
The arguments of the council members convinced Yuri Luzhkov to abandon the project in such a form as "inappropriate, incomprehensible, blowing up the entire urban development environment." Alexander Kuzmin, in turn, asked to include this facility in the joint work with the Research and Development Institute of the General Plan on the development of the Kutuzov unit, to which the mayor did not object.
And finally, the last object - a building on Vladimir Plotkin's Valovaya Street (TPO "Reserve"), which had already attended the last council, the mayor, without looking, decided to accept the composition, and its functional filling should be decided by the architects together with the prefect.
